Abstract: Architect John Funk helped make famous the second "Bay Region Style" of architecture, which combined the openness and clarity
of the International Style with the regional traditions of use of local materials and a sensitivity to the landscape. The
Funk Collection spans the years 1929-1988 and includes drawings, photographs, student work, clippings, and project files.
The project records include manuscript files, drawings, specifications, and photographs of projects designed by Funk between
1937 and 1985.

Language:
English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection open for research.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Curator.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], John Funk Collection, (2002-1), Environmental Design Archives. College of
Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California.

Acquisition Information

This collection was aquired in 2002.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.

John Cooper Funk was born in 1908 in Upland, California where he worked on the family farm until moving to Berkeley. In 1934
he received his bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and continued his education
at Berkeley, receiving his master's degree the following year. From 1936 to 1938, Funk worked in the office of architect
William Wurster. In 1938, Funk and his wife, Margaret, traveled through Europe, where he admired the work of Finnish architect
Alvar Aalto. Upon returning to the United States he established his own practice in 1939, hiring a number of women and minorities
in a time when white men dominated the profession.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Funk helped make famous the second "Bay Region Style" of architecture, similar to the International
Style in its openness and clarity, but graced by the use of local materials and a sensitivity to the landscape. Funk established
himself at a national scale with the Heckendorf House in 1939, which he designed for his sister-in-law. The Museum of Modern
Art recognized the project in 1945 as an "inexpensive house [with] classic dignity and restraint." Other notable single family
residences include his own residence in Lafayette, CA (1945), the Heymes House in San Francisco, CA (1948), the Zuckerman
House in Berkeley, CA (1949), and the Maenchen Residence at Greenwood Common in Berkeley (1952).

In addition to single family residences, Funk's strong social philosophy led him to participate in low-cost wartime housing
projects, as well as the post-war Ladera utopian housing development near Palo Alto with Garrett Eckbo (later completed as
an Eichler subdivision).

Funk also completed several large University of California buildings between 1950 and 1980, most notably; the student health
center, dormitories, dining hall, chemistry building, Science Library, and School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. He
also completed the student health center at UC Santa Cruz and the School of Dentistry at UC San Francisco.

Note

Sources:

Mock, Elizabeth, ed.
Built In USA: 1932-1944
New York:
The Museum of Modern Art,
1944.

The John Funk Collection spans the years 1929-1988 and is organized into three series: Personal Papers, Office Records, and
Project Records. The Personal Papers include drawings and photographs of student work, architectural exhibition material
collected by Funk, and photographs of Funk. The Office Records contain clippings and promotional materials about Funk's projects,
along with documentation and photographs from architectural exhibitions that highlight Funk's Heckendorf House.

The Project Records include manuscript files, drawings, specifications, and photographs of projects designed by Funk between
1937 and 1985. Notable projects include the Heckendorf House, Zuckerman House, Heymes House, and his own residence in Lafayette.
The collection also contains files documenting several multi-residential communities such as the Hawthorne Defense Housing
project and the Ladera Housing project. The Project Records also include several commercial, educational, and medical projects,
many of which were commissioned by the University of California for Davis, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco campuses.

The project list below, derived from the Project Index, is arranged alphabetically by Project/Client Name and contains information,
where available, about the location, date, project type, collaborators, photographers, and formats for each project in the
collection.